MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM DIES AFTER 1,173 DONATIONS
James Harrison, the Australian known as the “Man with the Golden Arm,” died peacefully in his sleep on February 17, 2025, aged 88, after giving blood and plasma 1,173 times. His plasma contained Anti-D, a rare antibody used to make medicine for pregnant women whose blood could attack their unborn babies, and Australian Red Cross Lifeblood credits him with helping save 2.4 million Australian babies.
He died at Peninsula Village Nursing Home in New South Wales. Lifeblood CEO Stephen Cornelissen put his life in one line: “James extended his arm to help others and babies he would never know a remarkable 1173 times and expected nothing in return.”
A promise made in an ICU bed
Harrison, from Junee, started out on the receiving end. At 14 he had lung surgery and needed many life-saving blood transfusions, and Lifeblood said he woke up in intensive care determined to give back.
His father, also a blood donor, encouraged him. Harrison began donating in 1954 at age 18 and, according to Lifeblood, never missed a single appointment. He gave every fortnight until he retired in 2018 at 81, and NBC News also reported he never missed an appointment. His wife, Barbara, was a blood donor too and died before him.
The BBC reported that he held the world record for most plasma donations in 2005, until a donor in the United States overtook him in 2022. NBC News reported he received the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1999.
Harrison never treated the record as precious. In a Lifeblood profile he said, “I hope it’s a record that somebody breaks, because it will mean they are dedicated to the cause.” Cornelissen said Harrison believed his donations were “no more important than any other donors’, and that everyone can be special in the same way that he was.”
Why Anti-D matters
The medicine made from Anti-D is given to mothers whose blood is at risk of attacking their unborn babies, a condition called Haemolytic Disease of the Foetus and Newborn. It happens when a mother’s and baby’s red blood cells are incompatible and her immune system makes antibodies that go after the baby’s blood cells. It can cause severe anaemia, heart failure or death, and before Anti-D treatment was developed, half of babies diagnosed with it died.
The family felt that impact directly. His daughter, Tracey Mellowship, said she is an Anti-D recipient herself. “As an Anti-D recipient myself, he has left behind a family that may not have existed without his precious donations,” she said in the Lifeblood statement.
She said the family would miss him most for his humour. “James was a humanitarian at heart, but also very funny,” she said. In his last years he was “immensely proud” to become a great-grandfather to two children, Trey and Addison.
Mellowship said he was proud of saving so many lives without cost or pain, and that it made him happy to hear about families like theirs. “He always said it does not hurt, and the life you save could be your own,” she said.
Cornelissen called Harrison “a remarkable, stoically kind, and generous person who was committed to a lifetime of giving and he captured the hearts of many people around the world.” He added: “He leaves behind an incredible legacy, and it was his hope that one day, someone in Australia would beat his donation record.”
Where the research stands
Lifeblood said Australia has 200 Anti-D donors, who help about 45,000 mothers and babies every year. Researchers from Lifeblood and WEHI have used blood and immune cells from Harrison and other donors to recreate and grow Anti-D antibodies in a lab.
They hope the work could one day help prevent the disease in Australia and worldwide. Lifeblood research director David Irving told the BBC that creating such a therapy has long been a “holy grail.” For now, Lifeblood said, blood from Anti-D donors remains the only way to prevent the disease.
